WND EXCLUSIVE

Funding for salaries to jailed terrorists cut

Latest move to remove incentives for violence

The salaries paid by the Palestinian Authority to imprisoned terrorists and the families of suicide bomber long has created an issue for Western nations that help fund the PA.

Now one European nation is taking action by withholding funds.

Palestinian Media Watch reported the Dutch parliament approved a plan to reduce funding for the PA only days after the Middle East monitoring organization presented information about the terrorist salaries.

PMW Director Itamar Marcus spoke to the Dutch MPs last month before the parliament voted 94-56 to cut 7 percent of the Dutch funding to the PA.

“The cut of 7 percent was chosen because PMW documented that the PA spends 7 percent of its budget on payments to terrorists in jail and to families of killed terrorists,” PMW reported.

“The need for such steps by foreign donors is as relevant as ever as the PA just added four new families of terrorists to its growing terror rewards payroll. One terrorist shot a pregnant woman, forcing an emergency delivery, but the newborn son died a few days later. Another terrorist murdered two of his Israeli coworkers. The other two terrorists were killed while attempting to kill Israelis. The families of the four terrorists will now receive monthly allowances for life.”

PMW reported the MPs had voted several years ago for the same move. But it never happened because the PA “deceived” supporters by claiming it had stopped the payments. In fact, it simply routed the payments through another fund, PMW said.

The United States adopted the Taylor Force Act earlier this year requiring that payments to the PA be cut if the terrorist salaries continued. Australia also decided a few months ago to cut direct aid to the PA.

The bill passed by Congress is named after a U.S. Army veteran who was killed by Palestinian terrorists in Israel.

Palestinian Media Watch documented PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ statement to the PLO Central Council that “we will continue to pay them.”

Official PA TV said there is “something that the Americans are telling us to stop – the salaries of the martyrs and the martyrs’ families.”

“Of course we categorically reject this. We will not under any circumstances allow anyone to harm the families of the prisoners, the wounded, and the martyrs. They are our children and they are our families.”

One official publicly berated the U.S. for not paying more than its fair share of costs for a U.N. refugee program after President Trump curbed support to motivate Palestinians to be serious about negotiating for peace with Israel.

WND reported the president urged the withholding of tens of millions of dollars from funds that support Palestinians.

His efforts were met with the threat of terrorism from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Bloomberg reported.

Abbas told the U.N. Security Council he will not meet with U.S. officials until Trump reverses his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

He went far beyond that, though.

“He finished his address with a warning – which others may read as a threat – of violence unless the U.S. restores funds that were cut to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which administers to millions of Palestinian refugees,” the report said.

“If you end your assistance they become terrorists or refugees in Europe,” Abbas said. “It’s either that or you continue to support UNRWA until the crisis ends. We are ready to begin negotiations. We beg you to help us so that we may not commit an act that goes against our beliefs and your beliefs.”

The Trump administration rejected U.N. calls for it to pay $364 million, sending only $60 million.

Carter, whose support for the Palestinians’ ruling Fatah and Hamas movements is well known, may have violated federal law, according to ACLJ.

It is a federal crime to “knowingly provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization,” ACLJ explained, noting Hamas has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department.

Carter, a Democrat, was president when the U.S. sustained one of its worst foreign policy failures ever, the Islamic revolution in Iran and the hostage-taking of American government workers at the U.S. Embassy. The 52 diplomats, held by the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line, were released after 444 days when Republican President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.